Father Mike Byron is well known to many at St. Ed’s as for some years he was the priest chaplain at Holy Angels High School. He currently teaches at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity and is pastor at the Church of St. Cecelia in St. Paul. In his church bulletin he recently wrote the following about the proposed Constitutional Amendment on Marriage.

CHAPLAIN JERRY FEHN

Father Jerry Fehn who served here at St Ed’s as a deacon and priest over 20 years ago and more recently served as the Catholic priest chaplain at Methodist and Fairview Southdale Hospitals is now serving as a chaplain to the Minnesota National Guard troops presently training in Mississippi before leaving next month for Iraq. He has sent the following message:

Thank you for your support. I am doing well. We are basically done with our training here at Camp Shelby. Now it is on to Ft. Polk for the critical training and evaluation. We will be there for about 3 weeks but the main critical exercise will be for ten days. All personal cell phones will be banned from use. We are to think and live as if we were in the country. We will have some more training for chaplains and chaplain assistants when we return: Critical Incident Stress Management and the Suicide Prevention training. The first is to deal with soldiers who experienced a critical incident that might cause great stress on them. The second program is to help soldiers help other soldiers to be alert and identify possible suicide attitudes or behaviors before anything happens to the soldier.

We have a good team of chaplains and chaplain assistants. Several soldiers want to become Catholic. Trying to get a time that they can come every week is hard because of all the training that must be done. Other than that, all is going well.

RESPECT LIFE WEEKEND

This weekend there is a special theme of the respect for human life. I like the idea of the seamless garment proposed by Cardinal Bernadine some years ago that we should be aware of the connection between all the life issues and how we are called to be consistent in our protection of human life. We are challenged to be fully pro-life in our concern for those in "the dawn, the dusk and the shadows of life." Our Community Caring for Life and other social ministries are wonderful examples of making those connections.

I also like the Christopher motto that it is better to light one small candle than to curse the darkness. One candle for life that many of us can light is by giving blood. January is also National Blood Donor Month. The Memorial Blood Center is our local blood bank. Their new donor center is conveniently located at 500 W. 98th Street in the Premier Bank Building and offers donation appointments Monday through Saturday. The Eden Prairie location is at 6801 Washington Avenue just north and west of the intersection of Highway 169 and Valley View Road. There will also be another day to donate blood here at St. Edward’s on April 4.

You can schedule a donation or get other information by phone (612-871-3300) or online at www.memorialbloodcenters.org/. You must be at least 17 to donate but there is no longer a maximum age for donation as long as you are in good health. It usually takes less than a hour to donate. Respect life, give the gift of life.

PARISH LEADERSHIP

Over the past year the Parish Pastoral Council has been engaged in an overview of our governing structures. The Council Chair, Art Jech, has with much dedication lead this effort. He generously agreed last summer to stay on as Chair beyond his normal term limit of two years to insure that the process would take effect. An outside consultant, Dennis Cheesebrow, of Teamworks International, was brought in to help structure the process. We are now ready to move forward with a task force of PPC members, staff and other lay leaders to come up with a new Constitution and Bylaws. Tom Griffin will head this effort. Meanwhile Tom Griffin and Kris McCullough will serve as interim Co-Chairs for six months until we elect new PPC officers. I believe that the new structures should be in place by the summer. The existing commission structure will remain in place so there should be no observable changes in our ongoing ministries. As Art steps down I want to thank him for his great efforts. He has helped lead us to these necessary changes.

The Finance Committee is also undergoing some transition. John Morgan who has served for over 12 years as Chair is moving on from the Committee. I want to thank him on behalf of the parish community for his dedicated service. I know that much of the parish's financial health reflects his helpful efforts.

Everyday wonderful, loving ministries take place and go forth from our parish. This is what we are about, sharing the love and compassion of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said it best, I have come to serve, not to be served. That is the guiding star for our parish leadership. I am so grateful for all those who have served and who continue to serve these important leadership roles.

NEW YEAR HOPE

Pope Benedict XVI had a challenging message in his first New Year message for the annual World Day of Peace. His simple but profound statement was that "all people are members of one and the same family." This questions the division of humanity into "us" and "them", a division that lies at the core of what is most wrong in the world. The group we call "us", defined by race, wealth, religion, gender, orientation or nationality, sets a moral boundary beyond which are those deemed not entitled to the same respect and solidarity - because they are the "them", not quite as human.

The leaders of the religions of the world are most at liberty to call on the world to transcend the boundaries of "us" and "them". And it is the unique ability of the papacy to be able to articulate such a global challenge on behalf of the rest, as Pope Benedict has done this New Year.

TWO BISHOPS AND MARRIED PRIESTS

In last week's Catholic Spirit, Archbishop Flynn had a column on the proposed Constitutional Amendment on Marriage. In upcoming weeks, I will share some reflections on this important topic. But for now I want to focus on his last sentence, "I hope and pray that all Christians will join me in this coming year as we lovingly manifest our confidence that the timeless understanding of marriage between one man and one woman is still the true path to happiness." I would question this rather romantic statement with the simple observation of knowing so many single people living truly blessed and happy lives. On the other hand, it is odd that for those who would like to marry such as many priests or would be priests it seems that the bishop would deny them this opportunity for happiness.

A different bishop, indeed from Ireland, Willie Walsh of the Killaloe Diocese (great names!), told the (Irish) Sunday Tribune this week that the rule of celibacy had led to many priests leaving the church to pursue relationships. Indeed, over the last 25 years over 100,000 priests worldwide have been forced to leave active ministry to marry. "Let priests marry" was his simple but powerful message.

"I have known some very fine priests who have left the priesthood because they found the challenge of celibacy not life-giving for them. Men like that are a great loss to the ministerial priesthood." He added that along with a forthright discussion of celibacy there is a need for debate on the wider issue of the church's whole understanding of sexuality.

Church leaders like Bishop Walsh are much needed. Another Irish priest, Redemptorist Fr. Tony Flannery, said the Bishop never had displayed any interest in careerism that had forced other clerics to stay silent.

"One of the great strengths of Bishop Walsh is the fact that he has never sought power or wanted to cling onto power in the church. If Rome asked him to step down in the morning, it probably wouldn't cost him a thought."

"He has that sense of closeness with his people. He's very much in touch with them because he listens to them and then he has the courage to be the spokesperson to talk out without fear or without favour."

Bishop Willie seems to concretely wrestle with Pope Benedict's New Year challenge to see "all people are members of one and the same family."

STEWARDSHIP WEEKEND

This weekend of the Epiphany the Church recognizes the gift revealed to the world in the Christ child. Before Santa Claus evolved, this was the day to exchange gifts as a sign of our love and care for one another. Orthodox Christians and Eastern rite Catholics still maintain this Epiphany giving tradition. In our parish we do make the connection with our annual parish stewardship commitment. We have received so much, indeed everything, from our God. As Christians and Catholics we see this most decisively in Jesus Christ. God so loved the world that he sent his Son. There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends.

We are very pleased to have with us this weekend Dr. Bernie Evans, who holds the Virgil Michel Ecumenical Chair in Rural Social Ministries at St John's University in Collegeville. He has a special expertise in Catholic social teachings and how they impact our lives and world. Bernie will share with us a message on stewardship very much grounded in Scripture and Catholic tradition. I am very thankful for him being with us.

Most of all, I am thankful to you as parishioners who do take the stewardship message seriously. We have a very compelling challenge this weekend and every day of our lives: The gift that you have received, give as a gift. Thank you for your generous response so that we can continue to be a true stewardship community.